I had planned to nap during my trip. But the fellow next to me had other ideas! Knowing I couldn’t sleep, I opened my Bible.

“What ya’ studying there, buddy?” I told him, but he never heard.

“The church is lost,” he declared. “Hellbound and heartsick. Christians are asleep. They don’t pray. They don’t love. They don’t care.” And with that he began listing all the woes and weaknesses of the church.

I shouldn’t have let it bug me, but it did. God’s faithfulness has never depended on the faithfulness of his children. He is faithful even when we are not. When we lack courage, he doesn’t.

I’ll probably never see that proclaimer of pessimism again, but if you do, will you give him a message for me? God’s blessings are dispensed according to the riches of his grace, not according to the depth of our faith. That’s what makes God…God! And that is what makes the church strong.